Carrying on a Military Installation

This is a discussion on Carrying on a Military Installation within the Concealed Carry Issues & Discussions forums, part of the Defensive Carry Discussions category; I have been a CCW holder for a couple of years now, in Florida, and I was disappointed when I found out that i would ...

Carrying on a Military Installation

I have been a CCW holder for a couple of years now, in Florida, and I was disappointed when I found out that i would not be able to posses any time of weapon while living on a military base installation. Now I understand that military bases are federal property but I still feel like I should be able to carry a concealed weapon on base since I reside on base. What are your thoughts?

The good thing is that right outside most military installations there are gun stores a plenty who will store your weapon while you go on post. Ft. Bragg has an on post rod and gun club so you can transport privately owned firearms in your vehicle, locked seperately from the ammunition.

Back in the '70's I lived in base housing. It was not within the confines of the installation so no gate guards. I had several firearms in my house and it was perfectly legal. Now if your housing is within the confines of the military installation, I think the reason why is obvious.

In the barracks (or are they now dormitories or something even softer sounding?) you cannot keep a firearm. It must be stored in a unit or base armory, you can check it out when you wish to go use it.

In family housing, you normally can keep your personal firearms. They will be registered with the installation security force.

In either case, you cannot carry your firearms around with you on base. You can go directly from armory/home to base gate and onwards, or to an authorized shooting area on the base. Upon return, gun goes back to its respective storage place.

There might be minor modifications on some installations, but that's the general way it works.

Actually, rules can vary a bit from base to base, particularly on bases where as one poster noted above there is a gun club/skeet range/range.

The best thing to do is check with the local SP/MP desk and get their rules. I do know of one instance where a military sympatico opened a gun shop just off base with an extensive collection of small lockers where military folks can store weapons for a monthly fee -- he's making a good living off this little gun shop.

But you really need to check with the locals. I can transport my weapon at Hurlburt Field to and from the range, and can transport on and off base at Moody, but cannot get through the gate with one at MacDill.

...I raise a loud protest against the idiocy that says that the same men and women who've committed to the protection of all of us...have been denied the right to protect their own families and selves...remember Ft. Hood...shame on the Defense Dept...

Regulations vary from base to base and branch to branch, but in the time I was AD (70-94), privately owned weapons could not be stored in the barrack/dormitories, however military family housing it was allowed. Carrying of weapons was not allowed except to and from the shooting range, and then only unloaded and in an enclosed case.

"He went on two legs, wore clothes and was a human being, but nevertheless he was in reality a wolf of the Steppes. He had learned a good deal . . . and was a fairly clever fellow. What he had not learned, however, was this: to find contentment in himself and his own life. The cause of this apparently was that at the bottom of his heart he knew all the time (or thought he knew) that he was in reality not a man, but a wolf of the Steppes."

You'd think that the Ft. Hood terrorist incident (not workplace violence) would have forced some change of mind on this issue, but it hasn't happened. Same old story though, gun free zones attract the cowards intent on killing innocents, without meeting any resistance.

I'll tell you another place that doesn't make a lick of sense, IMHO. The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, where all of your federal law enforcement officers, with the exception of DEA & FBI train, is a gun free zone, just like military bases. Special Agents and Police officers that carry everywhere, everyday, must surrender their weapons when they enter the property.

The guns are stored in lock boxes at the gate if it's a quick trip, and if you're there for a week or longer class, they store them in the armory. Their reasoning is for safety, since there are practical exercises being conducted everywhere on base, where red handled safe guns are being used. Afraid someone will somehow think the exercise is real, and engage with live ammo I suppose. Trained there many times, and taught there for five years, and never agreed with the policy. But it is what it is. They have a security force, but I never like trusting someone else with my security.